It is inherent in the basic nature of the game of table tennis, a.k.a. ping-pong or Ping-Pong, that the ball often escapes from the playing table at the end of each round of play: whether playing indoors or outdoors there is a frequent need to retrieve stray balls, often from inaccessible locations such as under a sofa or in a flower garden. For many players, having to bend, squat or stoop to retrieve each stray ball manually from the floor or ground is excessively strenuous and/or tedious for their capability and/or liking, especially while they are involved in playing a game of table tennis.
Rather than interrupt the game each time a ball goes astray, or suspend play from time to time to retrieve the stray balls, many players prefer to keep the game going uninterruptedly by drawing from a reserve supply of balls and simply substituting a different ball whenever one goes astray. Searching for the stray balls may be delegated to others or postponed until after the game.
Keeping a reserve supply of balls ready for play creates a need for a device to store and dispense them conveniently; the expedient of using one's pockets for this purpose proves to be generally unsatisfactory due to the discomfort and untidy appearance of bulging pockets.
In retrieving the stray balls, since they usually land on the floor or on the ground, often in an inaccessible location, there is a need for a hand-held device to facilitate ball retrieval from a standing position and to temporarily hold an accumulated quantity of retrieved balls.
For a game in progress there is a need for a storage rack that is strategically located and that can store a supply of balls and dispense them conveniently to a player one at a time.
Furthermore there is a need for a convenient arrangement for transferring the retrieved balls from the retrieval device to the storage rack.
Finally there is a need to provide a convenient storage facility for the retrieval device when it is not in use.